Vibha Chawla of Ashburn, Va., wonders how to explain Hinduism to her teenage son and daughter.

“They have a hundred questions,” she says. Although she grew up in India, she isn’t sure how to answer them. Hinduism doesn’t have creeds or pillars to summarize the faith, in contrast to Christianity or Islam. Understanding Hindu ideas takes study, even for those born and raised with the religion. So Chawla researches her kids’ questions in ways familiar to Americans of all faiths: “I Google. I call my Mom.”

Pandit Moti Lal Sharma, a priest at Rajdhani Mandir in Chantilly, Va., answers a question from Vibha Chawla of Ashburn in the community hall after dinner. / Photo by Jessamine Price

Chawla wears an elegant blue dress in an Indian style as she stakes out a table for her parents in the empty community hall at Rajdhani Mandir, a temple in Chantilly, Va. It’s a cool Saturday evening in mid-April. The prayer hall upstairs is busy with music and blessings for Mata Jagrans, a celebration of the Goddess Durga, just one of the many forms God takes in Hinduism. Priests and worshippers gather around a creamy, polished, life-size icon of Durga, a serene, smiling Goddess with a thousand arms, each grasping a weapon, riding a lion into battle to save the world.

In a few minutes, temple volunteers will serve a spicy vegetarian dinner to hundreds of worshippers. The tables in the community hall fill up quickly. A few families end up sitting cross-legged on the stage used for occasional cultural performances. Chawla, who has lived in the United States for 22 years, knows it will get crowded and is wise to claim a spot early for the sake of her elderly mother’s knees and back.

Models dressed in “mas” costumes wait on the stairs to dance in their carnival garb. / Photo by Leigh Giangreco

| By Leigh Giangreco |

The beat of the Caribbean is back in D.C., though this time it’s not on Georgia Avenue. At a small house party in historic Anacostia, neighbors, friends, local politicians and even Caribbean diplomats gathered for a fundraiser to benefit local artist, Earl Rodriguez.

Rodriguez, a Trinidadian native, is designing the costumes for the Baltimore Caribbean Carnival this July. His house on Pleasant Street is part of a small block near Martin Luther King Boulevard attracting artists to the area. He has already brought life to this corner of Anacostia. At the 2012 Lumen8 festival local, a summer arts festival now held in Anacostia, Rodriguez repurposed a dilapidated billboard over a local restaurant into a colorful ode to the Anacostia river for the 2012. What was once a crumbling metal sign is now a work of art: three giant rainbow fish swim below a grassy stream.

The neighborhood is getting a jolt of creativity after what many saw as blight on the District.

Violence and a $210,000 debt from last year’s D.C. Caribbean Carnival prompted a merge with Baltimore’s this summer. Despite the location change, area artists such as Rodriguez are bringing communities within D.C. together to rally around the Caribbean community. Local students at the SEED school will work with Smith, creating the elaborate costumes.

As the slow tide of gentrification creeps northward along Georgia Avenue, the appearance of an organic food service, Healthy Bites, is a harbinger of the changing face of D.C.’s Petworth community.

Healthy Bites, much like its surrounding community, exists in an “in-between” state. According to ownership and employees, the service can operate only because it relies heavily on delivering to people of a higher socioeconomic status in different parts of the city and local suburbs.

At the same time, Healthy Bites has long-term, philosophical aspirations to “educate” Petworth about healthy food. Despite this, the neighborhood is not yet fully gentrified and cannot currently support businesses like Healthy Bites. However, residents acknowledge that the service is a pioneering gentrifying force, and a symbol of what is to come—and stay.

The front wall of Crown Bakery is adorned with what co-owner Jennifer Selman calls the “three firsts.”

That is to say, the first prime minister of Trinidad, Eric Williams; the first African American president, Barack Obama; and the first, and current, female prime minister of Trinidad, Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

Located in the Petworth neighborhood along Georgia Avenue Northwest, Crown Bakery is considered a community staple. While the business is primarily run by Selman’s brother, who is the head baker, she has an extensive knowledge of its role in the community and where it is headed in the future.

Most of the bakery’s customers — which according to Selman, who is from Trinidad herself, are 95-98 percent Caribbean — come for more than just food, namely the culture in which the establishment is so richly steeped.

Such attachment makes sense, considering the business has been operating in Petworth for more than a decade — though they have only been in their current space, which they now own, for the past three years. Selman is quick to note, however, that while their business does receive some foot traffic from the Petworth community, the bulk of their sales are to the already established Caribbean clientele.

“The community is very supportive,” says Selman, without hesitation, however, “the community is mostly African American. Culturally, we are different.”

Selman realizes that with the new community, Georgia Avenue’s growth will bring added pressure to advertise her business. “We want all of America to know that we are here. We have to generate the money for that,” she says.

Ultimately, Selman hopes that the heightened traffic along Georgia Avenue will expand the neighborhood’s diversity, making it more like the business district along U Street. Though this may mean that prices along the avenue will rise, Selman hopes to stand firm — even going so far as to suggest that with increased traffic, a second location may become a possibility.

Passion, Preparation, and Presentation—the “three P’s,” as Selman puts it — are likely what will keep the business going, despite a gentrifying community. “This business is made with the three P’s,” Selman says, “for me, that’s life on the whole.”

In the estimation of Sarah Hines, 53, the Petworth neighborhood was, is, and will be the same, in perpetuity.

Hines, perched on a stool behind the counter of JJ’s Carryout, surveys her counter, her deep-fryers, and her flat top grills – the air heavy with oil and fried fish. Her son may be the owner of this establishment, but Hines is clearly in charge.

“We have been here 20 years, and we fit into the neighborhood perfectly,” Hines says. “Most people in this neighborhood have been here for a long time too.”

When the subject turns to the Walmart soon to grace the Petworth neighborhood, Hines is nonplussed.

Howard University, the black research institution located in Northwest D.C., has historically been viewed by nearby residents as a remote beacon on the hill, says Khalil Abdullah, a reporter for New American Media. Abdullah, 63, grew up in the nearby neighborhood of LeDroit Park in the 1950s and ’60s.

“That’s one of the different sub-stories of Washington and the black bourgeoisie,” Abdullah says. “The school had no connection with the community. It tended to operate above the fray, as a shining beacon.” Abdullah says that class distinctions often separated individuals associated with the university and those from the surrounding neighborhoods, such as LeDroit Park and Shaw.

Tensions remain between African Americans who attend the institution and those who do not, both students and residents say. Relations between students and community members are reflective of the various economic and social changes occurring within the community and among Howard students, they say. Opinions of student-community relations differ based on who is asked and appear to be split along racial and economic lines.

Dean of Residence Life at Howard University, Marc Lee, says tensions between students and members of the community have leveled off in recent years According to Lee, members of the community who used to view Howard students as pretentious are rapidly leaving the community. Individuals of higher economic and social classes now occupy much of the neighborhood, and their primary complaints about the students are noise-related.

“Students used to get into fistfights with the locals,” he said. “It was like, ‘You’re a young black man going to college and I’m a young black man who isn’t,’ and the tension as a result of that led to fights.” The quarrels declined as the demographics shifted. “Now the biggest complaint we receive is telling students to keep it down.”

Howard University professor of film and media, Alonzo Crawford, has a different opinion concerning how gentrification has affected student-community relations. Crawford, 68, has lived in LeDroit Park for over 30 years and witnessed firsthand the change in the social and economic makeup of his community. Unlike Lee, he finds that gentrification has soured relations between the community and students. White residents often lump students and black residents together and suspect students of criminal activity or view them as a threat, says Crawford.

Professor of film and media Alonzo Crawford (forefront), 68, says that gentrification has soured relations between the University’s students and residents of LeDroit Park. Pictured here with his brother, Kenneth Crawford, 63. / Photo by Jewel Edwards

“Is there tension? Absolutely, ever since urban renewal. They (white residents) have been saying, ‘How can we get these black people out of this neighborhood?’ ” says Crawford.

He says one way newer residents frequently express their dissatisfaction is through parking conflicts. “They don’t want Howard students to park on their streets and so they go online and write about it,” says Crawford, referring to a listserv that LeDroit Park residents regularly converse on.

“During every (Howard University) event, they sensationalize, and they say, ‘See? We shouldn’t let them be here.’ ” Crawford says that the email listserv is a forum for the LeDroit Park community to express racism and discrimination against blacks and Howard students.

“I’m a filmmaker, so I like to watch people,” says Crawford, “and that’s one of the things I’ve observed.”

Like Lee, Crawford thinks little animosity exists between African Americans who attend the school and those who live in the community. “I don’t think that tension between blacks exists much anymore because there aren’t many black people here,” he says. “LeDroit Park has got to be about 60 percent white now,” he estimated.

For some older African Americans, however, sentiments about student-community relations echo Khalil Abdullah’s: Howard University remains a remote institution with aloof students who are often unwilling to mingle with locals.

Long-time LeDroit Park denizen “Popcorn” Harris, 49, a colorful fixture around the neighborhood, finds Howard coeds stuck up and arrogant. “I’ll try to speak to them and they’ll just keep on walking. It’s like they think they’re better than me,” he says.

The negative interactions happen so often, he says, he used to think students were being taught to avoid locals in their classes. He would like to see the university put forth more effort to have their students break down social barriers between the locals and themselves.

Shaw residents Gwyn Zowdro, 30, and, Jill Anderson, 31, both Caucasian, often jog near the university and say that they operate in separate spheres from the students.

“We’re a little old to be interacting with college students,” says Anderson jokingly. Still, she says she seldom encounters any except for students outside of the Metro stop, and relations between herself and them are fine.

James Allen, 32, who moved into Shaw two years ago for his career, has similar opinions. He finds Howard students elusive and rarely interacts with them. “I think it’s a shame, because why go to school in an urban environment and not interact with it?” he said.

No students acknowledge that gentrification played a role in their perceptions of the community. Howard University senior Janaye Graham, 21, thinks that many Howard students attend the school with biased ideas about D.C. city life.These preconceived notions, she says, color their perceptions of the locals as being black and indigent.

“A lot of Howard students are from the suburbs,” says Graham, who is from Mt. Airy, Md. “So they have preconceived notions about city life and the people being lower class. Some of the locals make assumptions about the students being snobby, too.” She says that just walking to the Metro can be an ordeal, because when a local attempts to speak to a student and is ignored, residents often curse at them, which reinforces student’s stereotypes.

Many Howard students say that the way in which they relate to the community has everything to do with the environment they hail from. “I’m from Detroit so this is nothing,” says, Gabrielle Wayford, 18, a freshman. “It just depends on where you were raised and what you are used to. I know some people who do not want to go anywhere by themselves.” Freshmen Paij Mears, and Jasmine Catch, both 18, agree. Both regularly explore their surroundings because they are used to an urban environment.

They find that exhibiting respectful behavior towards residents elicits positive feelings back. “I feel like relations are good between students and locals as long as we don’t get too rowdy over the weekends, because it’s kind of like a pride of race thing; we’re students and we’re doing something useful with ourselves. Some feel like we’re taking advantage of an opportunity they never had,” says Mears.

Howard University has historically been viewed as a remote beacon on the hill to residents living in LeDroit Park, says Khalil Abdullah. / Photo by Jewel Edwards

Howard University provides plenty of opportunities for students to participate in outreach activities around the city, but the school could encourage more service within the immediate community, says Gabrielle Wayford. “We do a lot of walks for charity and that sort of thing, but we could be doing more immediate things.”

Christopher Marshal, 25, who has resided in Shaw for most of his life, expresses slight discontent with what he views as Howard’s lack of involvement with the community. “It would be helpful if they were to give back by doing things for the neighborhood,” he says. He can’t recall, from recent memory, any time that Howard students or the University itself has done anything in the way of community service. By contrast, Thomas Myron, 49, a 1991 alum of Howard, says that Howard does perform community service in the area. “They go out into the community and do service every year. I love that they’re giving back and I think they’re doing a wonderful job,” Myron says. Perceptions of Howard community service efforts appear to be split based on an individual relationship with the University.

Marc Lee of the Office of Residence Life says that he does not think that the LeDroit Park Day of Service, an annual event dedicated to the beautification of the neighborhood that is usually scheduled in April, took place this year.

However, the University’s website reveals that, “Student commitment to volunteerism is on the rise nationwide and at Howard University.” The Howard University Volunteer and Community Service Program, which promotes student involvement in activities both on and off-campus, declined to comment for this story. Calls and emails to the Department of Communications at the University were unreturned.

Senior Alonzo Heard, 21, summed up relations between Howard and its surrounding community with a sentiment that combines the positive and the negative aspects of University-community relations.

“You have to understand that Howard has been a fixture in this community since before 1867. That’s a long time,” he said. “Things aren’t always perfect, but we’ve learned to live together in peace.”

Diton Pashaj of Rustik Tavern in Bloomingdale behind his bar on a Monday afternoon. / Photo by Nicole Cusick

On a Friday night the corner of T and First St. Northwest is bustling with young professional couples meeting friends laughing and drinking at any of the several bars and restaurants that line the intersection. That’s according to Diton Pashaj, owner of Rustik Tavern on T Street. Four years ago it was a ghost town after the few dry cleaners and takeout joints closed for the night.

LeDroit Park and Bloomingdale are two neighborhoods in D.C. that have not been on the radar of many Washingtonians, but are literally growing from the ground up, according to local business owners. Many neighborhoods in D.C. are going through the process of gentrification; LeDroit and Bloomingdale seem to pride themselves on undergoing the process of change in a natural way, without radical displacement or cultural shifts.

Pashaj joined the Bloomingdale community in September 2010 as the only sit-down restaurant in the neighborhood. He was looking for a neighborhood in need of a local evening hang out, and he saw great potential in Bloomingdale. From the time he opened shop, Pashaj knew he wanted to be a part of the change in the community reaching beyond just being a hot spot to get a beer and some pizza.

“We were laughed at just three years ago, but we could be the next Logan Circle,” said Pashaj about the future of Bloomingdale. Pashaj is also a part of North Capitol Main Street, a non-profit that helps local businesses looking for a little help. Some of their projects include giving businesses new store facades to perk up their appearance. In addition to the non-profit Pashaj also took the park that sits across the street from Rustik and began the gardening efforts there. Now it is a spot that features several different plants and several sculptures.

“It has be great to see young couples become young families here, and see the boarded up houses that used to line this street become first homes, said Pashaj. “We are on step like three of seven with the changing going on here, but it is something.”

LeDroit Park – Common Goods City Farm

Common Goods City Farm is another local non-profit that is serving the LeDroit community as an urban farm and education center to serve the low-income residents of Washington, DC. Their farm now is located by Oakdale Place and the Park at LeDroit.

According to Anita Adalja, the farm manager, 85 percent of the food produced at the farm goes to locals who work there in exchange for food. The rest is sold to local businesses. Local businesses like Meridian Pint buy vegetables from Common Goods for their Meatless Mondays and donate a portion of their profits to the farm. Bacio Pizzeria also buys several herbs from the Common Goods. Blind Dog Café donates their left over coffee grounds to the farm they repurpose as fertilizer.

Map of the Businesses and Organizations of LeDroit Park/Bloomingdale/Shaw

Bacio Pizzeria began their involvement with Common Goods when they approached Bacio’s owner, Atilla Suzer, about using his kitchen to make pesto from the basil they grow in hopes of selling their product. From then on Suzer tried to buy whatever produce he could to support the local non-profit.

Suzer came to the Bloomingdale community when he was looking to open his all natural pet supply store, Green Paws, which is located directly above Bacio Pizzeria. He opened Green Paws two years ago, and the pizzeria 18 months ago. He too was looking to get into a neighborhood that was developing.

“We have experienced the same change in two years that H Street has experience in ten. We did this all on our own, they had a lot of help and it was forced,” said Suzer as he was simultaneously helping a customer in Bacio’s while yelling to his other employee from Green Paws in Turkish.

Suzer knew his clientele was more conscious of where their food comes from; he believes they want to eat at places that use local food sources. That is why he was willing to work with Common Goods as well as offer locally made ice cream and cookies.

Suzer is also active in the community, most recently supporting the Bloomingdale Beautification Day on Saturday, April. 20. The Bloomingdale Civic Association put the event on, and asked if he would donate a few pizzas to thank the volunteers who worked all day cleaning up the streets of the neighborhood. Bacio is often the host of local fundraisers according to Suzer.

“The feelings of the people develop and support the neighbors, and we grow together, the businesses an important part of that,” Suzer said. “You need to give back what you take.”

Roy, “Chip” Ellis, of Ellis Development Group worked to give back to the Shaw community when his company took on the Howard Theatre Renovation. Ellis is a fourth-generation Washingtonian, and a Howard University alum. Ellis said this project became a labor of love.

“The community was involved from the beginning, they were there to help raise money and collect memorabilia that had gone missing since the theater was closed for 30 years,” said Ellis.

Shaw – Howard Theatre

Ellis was also responsible for the non-profit that was created to help fund the restoration (Howard Theatre Restoration). In total they raised one million of the 29 million used for the restoration. The theatre was a cultural and entertainment of Shaw, and it is taking back its place in the community said Ellis. Young and old audiences are coming together to see a variety of artists perform in this one historic venue.

The restoration of the theatre has been complete for a year now. Recently the theatre held a Gala planned to celebrate the anniversary of the theater restoration and to continue to raise money for the phase two of the renovation. The next phase includes a library and a museum space according to Ellis.

This new source of entertainment is giving people a new reason to visit the Shaw area. This development will surely bring in new eateries like places popping up all over Bloomingdale and LeDroit. There are a few in the works already. Two of them by Derek Brown, an award winning restaurant owner of The Passenger near the Seventh Street. Convention Center. Brown will be opening Mockingbird Hill, a sherry bar, and Eat the Rich, an oyster bar in the Progression Place development that is right by the Shaw metro. He hopes it will become a local favorite and integral part of the community after he announced the opening at the LeDroit Civic Association meeting in March.

The Civic Associations of LeDroit and Bloomingdale are holding the residents accountable for the community they live in. Both neighborhoods held Beautification Days in the last month to encourage residents to come together to keep their streets clean.

The local businesses, community organizations, and non-profits in these communities are embracing their roles in the community, and are working to naturally improve these neighborhoods to revitalize their place in DC.

A garden can be dismissed as an easy symbol for the rejuvenation of a community, but in the case of Common Good City Farm, it truly does symbolize how the LeDroit Park community made the best out of a difficult situation.

“This place could’ve been an eyesore ridden with crime,” said community member Sandra Green. “Instead, we have a beacon of hope.”

Farm Manager Anita Adalja uses her experience in social work to better relate to the community. / Photo by Thomas Barreiro

What was once a school, Gage-Eckington Elementary, an anchor of the LeDroit Park community for 100 years, is now a park. The school was closed as part of Michelle Rhee’s 2007 restructuring plan. Residents at the time were apprehensive about the impact to their community.

“Gage-Eckington was the heart of this community and, when they announced the closing, people were furious,” said Tricia McCauley, wellness educator and herbalist.

Many, including the LeDroit Park Civic Association, fought the plan to close Gage-Eckington Elementary, citing, in a letterto then-Mayor Adrian Fenty that the lack of any plan to “mitigate the tremendous challenges a vacant building of this magnitude in such a critical location will create.”

This “tremendous challenge” was the concern that the vacant building and lot would turn into a magnet for anti-social or criminal activity. Something positive, a school was being terminated. What would the new reality bring?

“A lot of the youth get caught up in drugs and alcohol here,” Green said. “Their parents are too busy working multiple jobs and don’t have the time to care for them. A vacant building here would’ve magnified that element.”

Despite concerns, there was understanding that the school was dilapidated. It was inevitable that it would be closed once and for all. Many community members advocated for saving the school, but did not succeed. Gage-Eckington Elementary shut its doors in 2008.

Common Good City Farm. It was the positive that could override the negative. The small food justice initiative won its bid for the former baseball field and now maintains a yearly lease on the space.

“When we first settled in, you could barely recognize this as a farm, the soil was inhospitable,” said Tricia McCauley during an herbalism workshop at Common Good City Farm. “After all these years cultivating, the soil is so fertile that we’ve begun to have to deal with Dandelions.”

Today, you see a garden where once stood a baseball field, where once there could have been an empty lot. And the change, while no doubt traumatic and potentially quite negative for the community, takes a positive turn.

“The community was happy to see it [the school] replaced with something new,” Green said.

The farm has not been without challenges. According to Executive Director Rachael Callahan, the farm manager position saw a lot of turnover in the early years.

“My understanding is that, in a primarily African-American area, it was difficult for them to build a rapport with the community,” said Callahan.

A long-time community member, Green echoed this sentiment.

“They were white granola-hippies,” Green said. “They just couldn’t relate to the low-income families you have living just north of here.”

Despite the shortcomings of her predecessors, there is new hope in current farm manager Anita Adalja. With her background in social work, Adalja has already forged a stronger connection with the local community. According to Callahan, there has been a marked increase in community participation since Anita took over.

“The secret has been the peach trees,” Adalja said. “There are a few peach trees around the low-income housing. People come by and tell us how much they love our peach trees.”

The garden today, on a Saturday morning, is filled with volunteers, interns and participants working and sharing their efforts for the good of the community. All morning, the garden bustles with activity. Some two-dozen people set hoses, cart mulch and stack compost layers. The long, black hoses, which are set along the row of plants, are a simple, yet complicated irrigation system, called the “desert drip method,” which ingeniously delivers moisture drop by drop to each specific plant.

“It saves on water and contains evaporation,” said Jacob Gerety, a young intern who provided a quick visitors’ tour.

Volunteer worker Carolyn Carpenter, a regular at Common Good City Farm, plants a flower garden.

“I love this place,” Carpenter said. “I believe that, if you aren’t giving of yourself everyday, you aren’t living the way God intended. This place lets me give back.”

Green informs newcomers about the importance of the raised beds Common Good City Farm provides for low-income families in the area.

“Especially in this economy, the garden has a big impact,” Green said. “Families can qualify for a raised bed and raise their own vegetables. That means a lot for parents looking to put food on the table.”

The composting corner of the garden reflects layering of organic waste and hay, which stimulates the heat and decomposition.

“People from around the community bring their organic kitchen compost for our big piles”, Gerety said.

Indeed, a few minutes later, a woman and daughter emerged from a nearby building with two large pots of kitchen waste for the garden. They stayed to chat with volunteers after dumping their contribution.

A well-run garden, community support and participation, working hands in the soil in a sunny spring morning — the scene on a Saturday morning at the Common Good City Farm evidences a success story, of a community that took a conscious turn for the better.